Alabama Football: Nick Saban Right to Keep Starting QB a Mystery

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Like all of his teammates, University of Alabama senior running back Kenyan Drake has been getting the question from just about everyone imaginable: family, friends and even total strangers. 

They all want to know “Who’s going to be the Crimson Tide’s quarterback?” and Drake has been giving them all the same answer. When the time comes, head coach Nick Saban will make the decision and he’ll be “all for it.”

“I like catching passes from any quarterback,” Drake said diplomatically.

With the Crimson Tide closing training camp and beginning to turn its attention to Wisconsin, which it’ll see Sept. 5 in Arlington, Texas, (8 p.m. ET, ABC), the time has arrived for Alabama to start zeroing in on who will have what responsibilities this season.

That’s not just at quarterback, but all positions, only don’t expect Saban to disclose much. He was so coy during his press conference Thursday evening that he wouldn’t even name a frontrunner to start at the cornerback spot opposite Cyrus Jones.

“I think you can name a guy, but if we named a guy and then that guy wasn't the best performer and we had to un-name him, what good does that do?” Saban said. “So sometimes you run the risk of naming a guy before he's really won the team or won the job. So then you have to un-name him. Does that do the player any good?”

Saban’s been through this before, of course, most recently last season with Blake Sims and Jake Coker and in 2011 with AJ McCarron and Phillip Sims (no relation to Blake). Last year he waited until two days before the opener against West Virginia before letting it out that Blake Sims would start, and in 2011 it wasn’t until after Alabama beat Kent State that McCarron knew he would be the starting quarterback.

This time Saban may want to keep everyone guessing until Sept. 19 when Alabama opens Southeastern Conference play against Ole Miss, which could be an absolutely huge game. Don’t be surprised if the Rebels haven't established a quarterback by then, either.

Normally the advantages of naming a starting quarterback during training camp are obvious, including continuity and establishing the offensive identity. The more reps players take together, the more in-tune everyone can execute.

Yes, Alabama would have preferred to go that route, but this year in particular a lot of prominent programs have not. Reigning national champion Ohio State hasn’t named a starting quarterback and neither has Georgia, Oregon, Ole Miss, Florida State …

Most of them are deciding between two quarterbacks, while Saban is still taking about having multiple options.

Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

“Multiple would be two to me, which is what you usually do for any team in any game, and then you have a third that you try to get ready on a limited basis,” he said. “That's what we plan to do. That's really kind of how we've practiced this week, and that's how we'll continue to practice. Who those guys are exactly and what order they're in exactly, that hasn't been decided quite yet. But I have been pleased with the way all three of the guys played this week.”

The three are Coker, junior Alec Morris and sophomore Cooper Bateman. Also getting reps, but not as many, are redshirt freshman David Cornwell and true freshman Blake Barnett.

After weeks of not saying a word about Cornwell, who after the spring appeared to be Coker’s primary competition, Saban said he “struggled a little bit early on in camp. He's certainly getting better all the time, and we have a lot of confidence that he'll be a good player in the future.”

He also explained why Bateman is still in the running:

“I meet with guys after spring practice, and I told him, 'Look, you've done everything we've asked you to do for the team. You've very athletic. You went out and tried to play receiver when we needed you to do that. But if you're going to be a quarterback, we want you to improve your accuracy as a passer, your ability to take care of the ball. You're very athletic. You're the kind of quarterback we'd like to have here.’

“Lo and behold, he did that. He did that in May, he did that over the summer. His completion percentage has been very, very good relative to the other guys, and he is very athletic, and he can run.”

Saban then dropped a statement that will make things tougher on Alabama’s early–season opponents:

“How those guys develop and who we think can improve and develop the most during the season is also going to have something to do with this decision that we make. I would not rule out. I'm not saying we're going to do this or that we even want to do this, but if that doesn't happen we may play more than one guy in the first game.”

And with that, Alabama’s quarterback competition essentially became a shell game. All Wisconsin knows is that it’s probably going to see more than one quarterback, and Middle Tennessee State probably will as well, if not three.

Anything that might confuse the opposition might be considered at this point—like back in 2009 when Greg McElroy was expected to take his first snap as the starting quarterback and Alabama came out in a wildcat formation.

“I asked one of our players on the offensive line—everybody thinks you've got to have all this continuity—and I asked our offensive lineman, I said, 'Which one of the quarterbacks do you like the best?' He said, 'Well, since we don't huddle, we don't even know who's in there.'”

Wait, no huddle?

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.